Best Music of 2008

Exactly one year ago, I posted my list of the best of 2007. Strange then that I woke up at 6:00am this morning thinking of putting together my 2008 list. I’m a subscriber to eMusic, so most of my music this year has come through downloads from this excellent service. As well, my experience attending some of the music portion of SXSW has helped me find new music this year. Looking over this list, some are quite recent listens, while others have become old favourites, so it’s a little hard to rank them precisely. That being said, here are my choices (idiosyncratic and personal, definitely) for the best music released in 2008:

Frightened Rabbit – The Midnight Organ Fight

British Sea Power – Do You Like Rock Music?

Okkervil River – The Stand Ins

Sigur Rós – Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust

Cut Copy – In Ghost Colours

Deerhunter – Microcastles

Love is All – A Hundred Things Keep Me Up at Night

Islands – Arm’s Way

The Jealous Girlfriends – The Jealous Girlfriends

Emiliana Torrini – Me and Armini

Just outside the top ten (either due to quality or just not enough listens yet):

Kristoffer Ragnstam is some more great Swedish-pop in the Jens Lekman or Suburban Kids vein. Erin Bode and Hi-Fly are both jazz albums, and Creature is an awesome dance band from Montreal. If they ever make an appearance in Toronto I'm there!